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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28933407">oleander</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/vertigoo/pseuds/vertigoo'>vertigoo</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Total Drama (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Implied Neglect, Light Angst, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 14:14:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,040</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28933407</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/vertigoo/pseuds/vertigoo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Oleanders grew in all but the coldest of climates. They were gorgeous and hardy, and every single petal was filled with poison, just waiting to be bitten into by an unknowing victim. Yet there he was, sat right next to one, his teeth unbearably close to sinking in. It really was tragic, just how beautiful of a flower he was.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alejandro Burromuerto/Heather (onesided), Cody Anderson/Alejandro Burromuerto (onesided)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>oleander</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gentle, shaky breaths fogged up the glass, more delicate than the thin skin of a fresh fruit or the feathers of a moulting baby bird. No sound accompanied him other than that of his fingers pressed up against the window, sketching figures out of the fog. Each was erased as quickly as it was brought to life, until his hands were too tired to keep going.</p>
<p>Amongst the scribbled mess he could recognise faces, that of friends, enemies, and people stuck in between. He could see his… ally, he supposed the appropriate term was in this situation, glance in his general direction, checking if he was still there even though there was nowhere he could’ve gone. His face was barely lit by the lights overhead, mere pinpricks in the plane’s ceiling, yet when he turned to look at him there were galaxies in his eyes.</p>
<p>During his time on this wretched show he had come to expect more than any outward appearance in supposed friendships. To say it had affected his life back at home would be an understatement; what little popularity he had were crushed under his heel, nothing more than grains of sand in the ocean by now. He knew the reason he had made it that far was because he was easy. Easy to trick, easy to convince, easy to please. Easy to get a deciding vote from. And yet, no matter how aware of it he was, it was still true.</p>
<p>Every other person he had met on this show had brushed him off as annoying or unimportant. This season was no different. He was kept around to keep Sierra in line, and because she was powerful, he was powerful. For the first time in his life he meant something, but it wasn’t on his own. It was through someone else, just as it always had been.</p>
<p>That was why he was here. It was why he was sitting next to Alejandro, hand unbearably close to his, having spent hours in pitch black venting about what they shared in common without ever managing to get personal, <em>that</em> was why he had told him about how deeply terrifying the very girl that made him important was to him. He had already lost the game he was so sure he was playing two steps ahead in.</p>
<p>As the door handle rattled and Alejandro got up to make sure nothing broke, the other boy grew smaller in his chair (as if he wasn’t the smallest fish in the frying pan as he already was). He flexed his fingers, tapped a rhythm on the armrest beside him, did anything he could to avoid thinking about the here and now. Perhaps, if he was lucky, Alejandro would take pity on him. Not enough so to earn him the win, but a second-place title at least. Something more than the measly participation trophy he was going to get currently.</p>
<p>Because although his ally like to hide it, he could see the way he looked at Heather. He had seen it in the faces of so many others before him, a reality particularly grisly on the show. Their relationship was that of fate, he knew, but not in a way his ally likely wished for. Although Alejandro may have been on Heather’s mind, something clearly came before not only him, but every other obstacle in her path, and that was the money.</p>
<p>So perhaps his need for that second place was born out of more than a desire to prove himself, like he had been trying to reassure himself for the past several weeks. He wouldn’t have come back onto the show as anything other than a member of the peanut gallery if he had a say in it anyways. From the moment he’d caught onto Alejandro’s antics, he knew that he was going to make it to the finals. That was just what people like him <em>did</em>. And as the final two drew closer and closer, it became ever clearer that it was going to be him and Heather.</p>
<p>He could see it now: Alejandro, so close to getting the victory that he craved, lulled into a false sense of security by the girl he loved and who he thought loved him back, only to have it snatched from his hands. Because, although he may try to hide it with how he played with the other girls (and, he had noticed, the boys too) there was a part of him that cared, that yearned with such a deep affection that it broke Cody’s heart.</p>
<p>Putting a name to it, calling it his, made it feel all too real. He wanted to wash it from his mouth with soap until his tongue was dry and all that was left was foam. It wasn’t romantic. He would never dare call such a violent thing anything of that nature. It was traumatic, pure and simple, something that would haunt his mind like all of those other just plain stupid things he had done.</p>
<p>Alejandro sat back down beside him, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. It was as if he thought he could read Cody like a book, just from some hollow words shared in moments of ill-thought-out vulnerability. “It is alright, mi amigo,” he said, pulling Cody’s head to his chest. His heart beat at a steady rhythm, although Cody had no idea how since it felt like his was about to stop. “She’s gone now.”</p>
<p>He wanted to scream at him, tell him he knew what he was doing, that his tricks wouldn’t work. He wanted to tear his hair out at the stress, the lies and deceit that had fucked over all of his relationships and would continue to fuck them over for the rest of his life. He wanted to push himself out of Alejandro’s arms, and yet the moment he laid his hands on his chest to do so, he stopped. He was easy. He would always be easy.</p>
<p>Maybe Heather and Alejandro were perfect for each other after all. Two flowers, gorgeous to the eye, hard to maintain, and poisonous right down to the root. Cody could only ever hope to find a flower to match his own.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>so i changed my td tumblr user to alecodys like midway 2019 and yet never wrote about them. a crime? yes. so here is the obligatory alecody oneshot that should have come out when i first made that change. its unrequited and angsty because of course it was, im me. also im sorry i havent updated camp tv in like, a year. im so so sorry abt that lmao, but ive been trying and it just hasnt been working out. mental health n shit, n im working on stuff for year 11 now. hope you guys enjoyed this :)<br/>- cosmas</p></blockquote></div></div>
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